Hidden Objectives
by thebeastinsideusall
Summary: Vlad masters was not an unkind man. Vlad Masters had an … accident. Vlad masters, was Plasmius. If only he could get his portal to work before the Fenton's. This is cross posted from my Archive account.
1. Chapter 1

Vlad masters was not an unkind man. He donated to charity, he was a common fixture in any sort of fundraiser for any of the local high schools and colleges. He did his best to be a fixture of good will for the community. But Vlad Masters also held a dark side of himself, he sneered at poverty and couldn't figure out why the lower class was the way it was. Of course, no one knew his darker thoughts, no one knew the heavy resentment and hatred he felt for the Fenton's.

Vlad Masters had an ...accident. A few years after college. A minor miscalculation that had burdened him with a son. Taking his own mistake and making it work for him, Masters had the woman incarcerated on phony charges of heroin and had bought the lawyers to give him full parental rights. He'd find a use for his son someday. For now, Danial masters, will attend school and honestly, stay out of Vlad's way. Vlad had a mission to complete before the Fenton's. With their little girl and ideas of making a larger portal in their new home in Amity.

Vlad masters, was Plasmius. A cackling manic of a ghost that spent hours to days honing his skills and powers. Would split his very being into halves or thirds or more, just so he could have more hands typing away or more minds scouring equations. He barely spared a glance at his small son, making sure the child always stayed out of the library, where there was a hidden entrance to his underground lab. He was a halfa, a rare mix of ghost and human, and one that was hellbent on governing the ghost plane and ruling over the human world.

If only he could get his portal to work before the Fenton's.


	2. Chapter 2

Sat across from Vlad masters was his head housekeeper. A portly woman who had been in him employ for nearly fifteen years. A very hardworking and docile woman who could polish silver faster than any other servant he'd ever hired before. "You're... Resigning?"

Her head fell forward and Vlad took in her countenance, Agatha, that was her name. She looked thinner, haggard. Almost hollow looking. Her cheeks were sunken in, her eyes had dark circles under them. The hands held in her lap were boney and were wringing themselves together. "I'm sorry mister Masters, truly I am. But you see... I am ... I'm very sick."

"Sick?" she nods and takes a deep breath, he can hear the wheeze in her lungs from here.

"Stage three ovarian cancer... I'm afraid I didn't see the signs in time and..." her breath stutters, Vlad takes a moment to stand and circle his desk, leaning his hip on it as he stoops over to grasp her hands. Agatha was a servant yes, but a good one and one who never went against his orders or wishes for the mansion.

"How long have you got my dear?"

"A few months, maybe." Vlad stilled. So soon, he always forgot, with his powers and healing, how fragile human lifespans were. She was dying, minute by minute. "I have something to ask of you mister Masters..."

Patting her hand captured in both of his he urged the frail looking woman to continue. "My daughter, Marina, she's... She's only sixteen. When I ... When I leave she won't have anyone to take care of her, watch out for her. She won't have anywhere to go." Agatha placed her one free hand over the ones holding her other.

"Has she no father?" He'd wondered, briefly when she first had the child, but it was never much of a thought, too busy he usually was to care about his employees' children. The little brown-haired girl that sometimes would be hiding in the hallway outside of whatever room Agatha was clearing for the moment. Had it really been that any years now? If the girl was sixteen.

"No, and I'm not sure if he'd even want her after so long of not knowing about her. Mister Masters, I beg of you. Take her in, just until she's eighteen and legally on her own. I can't stomach the thought of leaving her to the foster care system or an orphanage." Vlad sighed and stood, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked a slow circle back around his desk to stand before the huge windows behind it. His back to the dying woman as he looked over the vast gardens ad land he owned before and around his mansion.

This was yet another opportunity. Lately his son had shown promise in football and with college looming around the corner the boy had a chance to become much more than he had started out as. Vlad had used his son, and the mothers' misfortune, to his benefit in the community and had gained even more recognition as a do-gooder and rich man out for the people. Perhaps, adopting the only child of his dying housekeeper as his own...yes.

"I wouldn't mind at all Agatha." Vlad turned and plastered a kind smile on his face as Agatha gasped to weep into her hands. Whispering thankyous into her tear-filled fingers. Vlad placed a hand over his heart and took a half bow. "I promise to treat her as my own."


	3. Chapter 3

Dan never saw much of his father daily. More like once a week, maybe two weeks. He didn't really care one way or another. Spending time with his father was awkward and usually spent in silence or booming voices as they argued about what was best for him. Considering what Vlad thought was best was sending his son to a full three-month football camp, every summer until he graduated. To hell with that. He liked the sport alright, but he didn't want to be pro.

No, Dan was very content to not see or hear from his father for as long as possible. In fact, it's why he stayed late at school today. He didn't have practice but, he just didn't want to go home. To another full dinner sat at a table for one. Nope. Too depressing. So, he stayed behind, loitered in the library for a while as the parking lot started to empty out before he began to walk to his car. At sixteen, his father had gifted him with a brand new off the lot Mustang. It was black with a white racing strip down the center. Dan had been excited for that gift, the one thing he'd asked for and his father hadn't gone out of his way to make it weird or extraordinarily expensive. Just the car, nothing extra.

His feet walked slowly to the car, backpack slung over his right shoulder as he fished the keys from his back pocket. Glancing up Dan could see only a couple cars left in the entire lot, and one lone little truck on the other side of his car, nose to nose with it. He thought nothing of it, it was Mina's car, a girl he shared some classes with. Unlocking his car, Dan threw his backpack into the passenger seat, preparing to slide into the driver's side as he heard a hefty grunt and he sound of a small engine trying and failing to start.

The little truck across from him, just a small Ford Ranger dented and rusty. The color of deep forest green. Again, the sound came, a clicking sounds, and Dan stood back to his full height to glance at the windshield across from him. Mina was inside the truck and her forehead hit the steering wheel, he could hear the groan from her even through the truck cab. Tapping his fingers on the hood of his Mustang, Dan blew air out from his nose and closed his car door as he turned and made his way to the trucks drivers side, knocking his fingers on the door.

"Need some help?" Mina glanced up in surprise, her green eyes wide for a second as she rolled down the window, with a crank. Dan lifted his hand to touch the top of the small truck with his palm as he leaned down some to investigate the now open window.

"I left my lights on this morning..." she groans out and hits her forehead once more onto the steering wheel. Dan can't help but chuckle softly, women usually did tend to forget those things when in a hurry. And he remembered her coming into the lot barely in time to get passed the closing gate to the school.

"Got any cables? I'll give you a jump." Mina nods, moving to get out of the truck while Dan steps back and goes to his own car. Stooping inside, Dan pressed the release button for his hood and then reached over to start his car. Letting it rev up a few times with the press of his hand on the pedal to charge his own battery to prepare for the loss it was going to take.

Mina had pushed her seat forward to reveal an emergency kit behind it. A ratty pair of cables were in her hands as she started to unwind them, her hood already popped open but needing the stiff pole set inside of it to hold it up. Dan let her unwind the cables and instead lifted the hood to her small truck and situated the hood, so it wouldn't fall on them. "Thanks..." she mumbled to him shyly and Dan only nodded.

Each of them took an end of the cable and attached them to the batteries of the vehicles. Mina climbed inside her battered truck and waited a few moments before she tried to start her truck once more. It roared to life quickly and she shouted out in triumph. "Yes, yes, yes!" leaping out of the truck she smiled brightly. "Thank you! But I seriously got to go or I'm going to be late for work!" handing her back the cables Mina only threw them into her wide seat and climbed back inside, with a wave she was gone, and Dan rolled his eyes. Easily closing the hood of his car with one hand as he watched her speed out of the lot.


	4. Chapter 4

"Danial, a word please." shocked to see his father waiting for him when he came through the door, Dan had no choice but to follow his father into the study. He sighed as he heard his full name, it's not that he hated it, it just he got so much grief from school and peers about the pronunciation of it and why didn't he just have a normal 'Daniel' name.

"Have a seat son." raising an eyebrow Dan sat across from his father in one of the two leather seats before the large dark wood desk. His father had his back turned towards him, hands clasped behind his back as he looked out the window for a few moments. His father was a tall man, not too broad but still wide and lithely toned. Only slighter by a small degree compared to Dan's football playing physique of broad shoulders and thick arms and legs.

"I have a delicate situation to discuss with you." Turning, Vlad Masters took a seat at hi desk and looked across at his son. Taking in his young features, the square jaw and strong countenance. The fire behind blue eyes and dark hair he demanded be kept shaggy, much to his father's annoyance. "Our head housekeeper has come to me with a difficult situation."

"Is something wrong with Aggy?" Dan suddenly asks, worry clear on his features and Vlad ticked his eyebrow at being stopped midsentence.

"Yes, she has discovered late term cancer, it does look good for her."

"Oh my god, does Mina know?" Vlad rose an eyebrow. He hadn't counted on his son knowing the woman's teenage daughter.

"I am not sure. However, there is more, with how badly her condition is deteriorating, he had no one to take custody of young Marina," he paused and narrowed his gaze to his son, hating how the youth of today didn't take on their birth names. "She has asked me to become Marina's legal guardian, until she is eighteen, graduated high school and has a safe place to stay on her own."

Dan sat up straighter and blinked at his father. This was something... He never would have fathomed his father capable of kindness to this degree in his own home. Offering to care for a teenager, one of his servants' children. His father stood once more and came around the desk to face his son.

"I will be talking to her mother in the next few days, signing documents and to tell Marina what is going to happen. Should her mother fall prey to the disease faster than expected." his father crossed his arms and looked at his son for a moment. "I wanted to know your opinion on this situation."

Dan sat back in the chair and narrowed his gaze a fraction. His opinion had never mattered before. In fact, it was the very last thing that Vlad Masters ever cared to acknowledge in any situation. He wasn't sure what to say or how to say it. He just knew that Mina was a sweet girl and her mother was a damn good woman, he'd known her for years. But he'd never grown close to Mina, he was almost always busy with some sort of lesson or school his father was forcing on him as he grew up. Though Mina wasn't there at the mansion very often, just every now and then when her mother couldn't find a sitter. Even now, him helping her with her truck, was the first time they'd spoke in probably months. They just weren't close.

"I... I'm sorry to hear about Agatha being sick, she just... Hasn't shown any signs, I guess." Dan sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, a nervous tick he had. "I'm not... Very close with Mina at all, but... her mom, that's all who Agatha talks about sometimes." Vlad wanted to roll his eyes at his son, getting attached to the hired help like he obviously had been.

"When Agatha does pass, her daughter will stay here until she's of legal age to make her own choices and live on her own. I wish to know if there will be any goings on between you two while my back is turned." Dan whipped his head up and glared at his father. He wouldn't... No, that was sick. Her mom was dying…

"No." Dan said simply and stood, grabbing his bookbag and slinging it over his shoulder. "Permission to be dismissed," he grits out, eyes glaring at the windows across form him and not the man that was his father.

"Granted." Dan was surprised he hadn't tucked tail and just ran from his father's study, but he calmly turned and left the room, closing the door with a soft click and then made his way into his room.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ma? Why do I have to be here again?" Mina was surprised her mother asked her to go to work with her today. It was Saturday, one of Mina's days off from work and she didn't have practice, she was free and clear and wanted to nap all day. Not go to the Master's mansion up on the hill, though she didn't mind keeping her mother company while she worked.

Her mother was unusually quiet but she smiled and hummed softly as they pulled into the back entrance to the mansion. A small parking lot for the housekeepers, gardeners and such. Mina only grabbed her messenger bag from the floorboard of the car and followed her mother into the giant house. Confused, when her mother simply walked through the hall and into the main house, not going toward the kitchen or the laundry rooms.

"Ma?" Still, her mother didn't respond and Mina grew apprehensive as they came through the foyer from the west side and the large double doors of what she remembers as the Masters study.

"Ah, Agatha, right on time." Vlad Masters himself stepped from the open study doors, making Mina blink and then blink again as she caught sight of Dan standing just inside the doors behind his father. His thick, corded arms crossed and a solemn look on his usually calm face. Mina's hands gripped the single strap on her bag as she looked around, suddenly nervous and confused.

"Please, come in, come in." Vlad opened his arm to them to step into the expansive office. Mina's feet grew heavy as she followed her mother and sat beside her in the two chairs across from the desk, Dan leaned against the windows back behind and Vlad took up residence at his own chair.

"Mom? What's um, going on?" She could see Dan tense, his shoulders growing taut as she asked the question. They hadn't been close in a long time but she knew his tells. Beside her, her mother tried to smile but it looked forced.

With a deep sigh her mother reached out and gripped Mina's hand in her own. "Sweety, I got the results back from the doctor."

Her world froze in that single moment, for what felt like hours. Mina blinking at the sad and nervous face of her mother as the information set in her mind. This had been a constant worry in their small home for nearly two weeks now. She knew the possibilities, what the blood tests could show. "Why are you telling me this here? In front of your boss?!" Mina went to stand, her voice shrill and scared. Confused.

"Mina, Mina, Mina, it's okay please just sit." Her mother's calming voice pushed and Mina sat with a heavy slump in the leather chair. "Hey, hey, look at me." She did, teary eyed she met her mother's own haze.

"We're here, discussing this. Because…" She took a shaky breath, "Because you need to be taken care of sweetheart." Blinking, Mina tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"What... do you mean?" Her voice sounded small, she didn't see the way Dan lowered his head and closed his eye to the sound.

"My dear, if your mother... Loses her battle sooner than expected, you are too young to be left on your own at just sixteen. Your mother doesn't wish for you to be uprooted from your school or life here." Mina turned her head to look at Vlad Masters, the very tall and stoic looking man behind the desk. She'd never really liked the man, not really, he was stuck up and snooty. But he seemed to always look down at people even though he tried so hard to have a good public image as a kind hearted man.

"I've asked mister Masters to take over as your legal guardian, should I leave you too early." Tears welled up in her eyes, a light track smearing the line of mascara under her eyes as she looked wide eyed back to her mother. "Otherwise, you'll have to be put into the foster care system. Oh, baby don't look at me like that." Her mother could see the absolute look of terror coming over Mina's face at the idea of foster care. "I never had any siblings, my own parents are long gone. We've got no one else to turn to, mister Masters is offering you a safe place until you go out on your own."

"May I be excused…" Her voice was so scratchy and dry, hung in her throat like barbed wire as she pulled her hands slowly from her mother's grip and collected her bag that was at her feet. She didn't even wait for a reply, dashing from the open study doors and running down the hall.

"Oh dear…" Vlad softly spoke as he blinked and the teen was gone from the study. Agatha stood, hand to her lips as she watched her daughter run but she didn't have the strength to run after Mina. "Danial, why not go find her? I'm sure she might get lost on her own."

"Yeah, sure..." Dan quickly excused himself from the study, leaving Agatha and his father alone.


End file.
